Garbage in ... garbage out. To even the computer-illiterate among us,
this concept is something we all understand. All of us that is, except
Canadian Firearms Centre (CFC) employees straining to implement the registration
component of the Firearms Act.

Apparently CFC bureaucrats skipped those classes in their database management
courses. So for their benefit, "garbage" as it relates to a
database, refers to inaccurate information. When garbage goes into the
registry, garbage (again, inaccurate data) will be output.

In the case of the 68 year-old handgun registry and the newer C-68 registry
created for the 6 to 20 million non-restricted firearms not already part
of the older database, the term "garbage in" is sadly appropriate.

For example, in the spring 2002 edition of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine,
Executive Editor - Russell Thornberry recounted his experience as he passed
through Canada customs at Dorval Airport in Montreal on his way to a northern
Quebec caribou hunt.

As a law-abiding citizen bringing firearms into the country, Thornberry
filled out the registration card for his firearms and presented it to
a customs official for inspection. He informed the agent that the serial
number for one of his firearms was impossible to see without partially
disassembling that gun, so he reached into the case and lifted the gun
so the officer could verify that the serial number and the registration
card agreed.

"Don't pick up the gun!" the officer ordered.

Thornberry was taken aback; he put the gun down and reiterated that he
was trying to help with verifying the serial number. Helpful or not, Thornberry
was informed that verifying the serial number "doesn't matter"
as customs officials had been "told not to remove guns from their
cases because it makes some passengers nervous". Incredulous, Thornberry
asked how they could verify the information on his registration card.

And the officer's response, as he stamped the registration card, allowing
the unverified gun into Canada?

"Those are my orders."

In the debate leading to government approval of C-68, then Minister of
Justice Allan Rock argued that the object of his latest firearms regulation
scheme was the "preservation of the safe, civilized, and peaceful
nature of Canada." A required component of the regulation he proposed
was registration. The CFC web
site echoes this contention, noting that public safety is their business,
and registration is essential to the success of that business.

Despite the inability of either government or anti-gun activists to prove
that registration has any beneficial impact on safety, if we conditionally
accept their link between registration and public safety, then a refusal
to verify serial numbers is amazing and frightening. If the numbers going
into the registry are not accurate, Canadians are clearly being put in
an unsafe position. Even the nervous natures of a few Dorval passengers
are not sufficient reason to jeopardize the alleged safety needs of an
entire country.

After all, "if it saves even one life, isn't it worth it" to
make passengers nervous?

The claims of keeping Canada safe by registering Granddad's shotgun are
tenuous at best. However, without that safety component, there is little
else to justify the self-congratulatory rhetoric we see in routine CFC
media releases.

Given the $689 million price tag and the inconvenience borne by several
million firearms owners, most Canadians would agree that the CFC should
be doing something constructive; safer streets might help balance the
financial burden and nuisance associated with the registry. However, increasing
reports of firearms related crime, compounded by routine bungling of licenses
and registrations are compelling evidence that the outcome of the registry
is proving more destructive than constructive.

Unfortunately, Thornberry's example is not limited. Reports of applicants
waiting several months (even years!!) for licenses and registration certificates
that should have taken several weeks abound. Worse, firearms licenses
are said to arrive with the wrong pictures or with firearms wrongly identified.
Others claim to have received multiple licenses, each bearing different
and incorrect information for the same firearm. One holder of a minor's
license has received two free registration packages, despite the fact
that it is illegal for a minor to own a firearm - they can only borrow
an adult's firearm. Some have even been sent registration certificates
for firearms that do not exist or were sold several years prior.

The mistakes are numerous, varied, and the list is growing in direct
proportion to the money poured into the registry.

Surely, reasonable people can allow for some errors in setting up this
sort of system. However, when standard operating procedures produce the
list of errors noted above at 810 per cent over the original cost estimate
of $85 million, reasonable people must demand accountability.

Government approved the registry to make Canadian society safer. However,
the garbage we are seeing produced by this registry indicates that we
are not getting our money's worth. It is past time to trash Plan A and
move on to Plan B.